(There was a loaded rifle in his left.) "Who offers indignity to a distinguished guest ?" he demanded.
The question was addressed to everybody in the room.

He took care they were all aware of it.

His stern eyes traveled from face to face.
"My men, who escorted him here, are outside the door.

They can enter and escort him away, if there are none here who understand how to treat the stranger in our midst!" There was goose-flesh all over me, and I did not even try to look unembarrassed.

A man's wits, if he has any, work swiftly when he looks like being torn to pieces at a moment's notice.